LOUISVILLE — In the 141 runnings of the Kentucky Derby, Churchill Downs never has been as crowded as it was on Saturday. A record crowd of 170,153 jammed the old South End plant, and everybody had trouble with the traffic. Nobody could go anywhere without getting bumped, jostled, blocked, stopped, or sloshed with an adult beverage.
Nobody, that is, except American Pharoah.
Although it wouldn’t be exactly right to say the mile-and-a-quarter Derby was merely a stroll in the park for America’s new racing idol, Pharoah had a clear path every step of the way, thanks to the skillful guidance of jockey Victory Espinoza.
While most of the other 20 horses were all knotted up heading down the stretch the first time and into the first turn, Espinoza settled American Pharoah into a good stalking position just behind the front-running Dortmund and Firing Line.
At no point did Espinoza have to worry about the bumping and grinding that was going on back in the field. As a result, he had plenty of horse when he asked American Pharoah to run as the field headed into the turn for home.
It wasn’t a clean turn. In fact, the colt took Espinoza very wide, surely costing him a couple of lengths, but quickly veered back to left for the drive down the long Churchill stretch.
On the rail, the previously unbeaten Dortmund, Pharoah’s stablemate in trainer Bob Baffert’s barn, ran out of gas, even though he had been allowed to set a relatively modest pace through the first mile. The only challenger remaining was Firing Line, who was full of fight under veteran jockey Gary Stevens. But when Espinoza asked American Pharoah to run, hitting him with one right-handed lick after another, he began to draw away.
At the end, Pharoah had a length advantage over Firing Line, with the game Dortmund finishing third to give Baffert a 1-3 finish, his first Derby win since War Emblem in 2002, and his fourth career Derby victory, tying with D. Wayne Lukas for second behind the six won by Ben A. “Plain Ben” Jones.
But for Baffert, who changed his lifestyle and his perspective after suffering a near-fatal heart attack in 2012 in Dubai, the most important thing was that he got to share the victory with his sons. He has two from a former marriage who had never come to the Derby, and one with his current wife, Jill, a former anchor for WLKY-TV in Louisville.
His youngest son, Bode, now 10, almost has his heart broken when the colt named for him, Bodemeister, finished second in the 2011 Derby. But yesterday, as American Pharoah was bounding down the stretch, Bode was bouncing up and down until finally letting out a big scream of triumph at the end.
American Pharoah’s final time of 2:03.02 was not exactly in the same park with Secretariat’s 1:59 2/5 in 1973. But don’t let that distract you. This was regarded as the most talented Derby field in years, and the winner handled it professionally and emphatically.
The biggest disappointments probably were Mubtaahij, the mystery horse from Dubai, and Carpe Diem, who won a lot of backers with an impressive win in Keeneland’s Blue Grass Stakes. Mubtaahij, which does not mean “overrated” in Arabic no matter what you might hear to the contrary, finished eighth under Belgian jockey Christophe Soumillion, meaning Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Maktoum must go back to the drawing board and some up with yet another Derby strategy.
For decades, the Arab oil sheikhs have been spending fortunes at the world’s most prestigious horse auctions, trying to corner the market on the best-bred yearlings. But generally they insist on prepping them in Dubai instead of giving them a prep race or two in the U.S. That was the story, once again, with Mubtaahij.
And then there was Carpe Diem, who impressed Baffert in blowing away his field in the Blue Grass Stakes. “He won like my horses have been winning,” Baffert said last week. “He could be tough.”
Instead, Carpe Diem broke from the No. 2 post and never really threatened, finishing 10th for trainer Todd Pletcher and jockey John Velasquez.
Espinoza’s flawless ride enabled him to become the first jockey to win the Derby back to back since Calvin Borel did it with Mine That Bird in 2009 and Super Saver in 2010. As he told NBC’s Donna Barton Brothers while bringing the colt back to the winner’s circle, “I feel like the luckiest Mexican in the world.”
So now the Triple Crown will begin to suck us in again. In case you had not heard, the last horse to sweep the Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes was Affirmed in 1978. Several have come close, including all three of Baffert’s previous Derby winners, who each prevailed in Baltimore and bombed in the Big Apple. They were, of course, Silver Charm in 1997, Real Quiet in ’98 and War Emblem in 2002.
But maybe, just maybe, this might be the one the game has been awaiting. He answered a lot of questions in Derby 141. Nevertheless, his clean trip in the Derby is hardly guaranteed in the Preakness, especially that he’s now the one that has that Triple Crown target on his back.
Billy Reed is a member of the U.S. Basketball Writers Hall of Fame, the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame, the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame and the Transylvania University Hall of Fame. He has been named Kentucky Sports Writer of the Year eight times and has won the Eclipse Award twice. Reed has written about a multitude of sports events for over four decades, but he is perhaps one of media’s most knowledgeable writers on the Kentucky Derby.
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